November 12, 2016

Mumbai 2016, Day 7: A Different Final Day

The seventh day of the festival was on 27th of October. But I could not post this blog then or any sooner than today due to unavoidable circumstances. Here is a brief description of the movies I got to watch on the final day:If I don't count the half an hour long experimental film 'Light Music' from yesterday, my final score that this festival is among my lowest. On an average I manage to watch 31 films during this festival week that I have attended for the eighth consecutive year now. But this year my score is 28. One of the biggest reasons for that is the fact that I have to start working from the very next morning and hence I did not push myself during the last two days to watch more than three full films. On the final day, I returned home for a nap in the afternoon and then went back for the last two movies and hence missed at least one movie - a cost I decided to pay for the bigger picture. Hope cinema gods will understand that and forgive me :)'Dust' (2016/ Turkey-Afghanistan) by Gozde Kural: A moving two-hour drama about a Turkish woman's trip to Afghanistan to fulfill her dead mother's wish only to discover the horrors of her family's past.'Endless Poetry' (2016/ Chile-France) by Alejandro Jodorowsky: Easily among my top three movies of this festival and also, perhaps, of this year. It is indulgent and it is beautiful. But it is also moving, and very, very entertaining. What an experience!'Barakah Meets Barakah' (2016/ Saudi Arabia) by Mahmoud Sabbagh: A light and fun film to close the festival, it is a romantic-comedy about two lovers with the same name, trying to date despite the strict the laws of their land. With this, I have ended up watching the official submission of thirteen countries for the Foreign-Language Oscar this year.

P.S. I started the 'Must Watch' recommendations in September 2010. Before that I had watched several movies that must feature in this list. But in order to save myself from the useless and predictable exercise of recommending all great movies, I decided to follow a simple eligibility criterion: The movies recommended here would be among those I watched or re-watched since September 2010. So please do not be surprised if 'Cinema Paradiso' or 'Apocalypse Now' (which are, in my opinion, definite Must Watch) do not feature in here. They will find a place in the list the day I re-watch them.